Bulgarians Join Balkan Protest Against Soaring Food Prices
Bulgaria has joined Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro in organizing protests against rising food prices
A total of 3.6% of enterprises in Bulgaria use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, according to data from a study by the National Statistical Institute.
More often this happens in large companies with more than 250 employees (13.8%). The share of medium-sized enterprises (with between 50 and 249 employees) that work with artificial intelligence is 5.5 percent, and among smaller ones only 3% use this technology.
In 2023, 96.3% of non-financial enterprises with 10 or more employees have access to the Internet. 89.2% of enterprises have a fixed Internet connection, and in 46.6% the maximum data download speed is higher than 100 Mbps, statistics show.
The relative share of workers to whom the employer has provided access to the Internet is 39.7%. The global network is most widely used in companies from the "Creation and dissemination of information and creative products; telecommunications" sector (92.2%), and the least - in the manufacturing industry (25.5%).
Every second company (50.4%) has its own website, which is most often used to describe the offered goods and services and price information (37.9%).
In 2023, 38.0% of businesses use various types of social media to grow their business and expand their web presence. The most popular are social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Yammer, Viadeo, etc.), in which 37.2% of enterprises maintain their profile, followed by websites and multimedia sharing applications such as YouTube and Instagram - 13.2%.
In 2023, 21.7% of enterprises use ERP software. The share of companies that have a customer relationship management (CRM) application is smaller - 10.5%, as well as those using business intelligence (BI) software - 4.2%.
According to a study presented to MPs by Prof. Emilia Chengelova, from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the shadow (grey/informal) economy in Bulgaria remains high at 33%
A recent survey by digital payments company Visa reveals that most Bulgarians planning a winter vacation prefer to pay digitally at ski resorts
the last quarter of 2024, the proportion of properties purchased with mortgage loans in Bulgaria grew to 27%, or roughly every third property
Bulgaria's labor market remained stagnant throughout 2024
Retail sales across the European Union showed a decline in December, with both the eurozone and the EU reporting decreases
Bulgaria has the lowest minimum wage among the European Union member states as of January 2025, standing at 551 euros
Bulgaria's Perperikon: A European Counterpart to Peru's Machu Picchu
Bulgarians Among EU's Least Frequent Vacationers, Struggling with Affordability